My wife, award-winning middle grades author of the Zahra of the Uwharries series, is a wonder. She never does anything by halves and somehow manages a pace of productivity that I couldn't muster in my finest moments. She has not only changed careers from non-profit marketing director—she will be concluding her second year as a middle school social studies teacher in a few weeks—she decided to get her masters degree as well. Add to all this a panoply of other roles and responsibilities, like being a mom, a grandparent, a wife and a caretaking daughter, you can see what I mean. She's got it together.
On top of all of this frenetic and sometimes overwhelming “hectivity”, to borrow her own word, she has completed her third book in the Zahra of the Uwharries series, entitled Omega Crag. The book will be available tomorrow, May 17th, online. If your local bookshop doesn't carry it, please ask them to and remind them that this is book three in a five book series; they need to order the first two, as well.
The middle grades kids in your family who love to read will adore these books and I have it on excellent authority that Omega Crag is the best of the three so far. Heck, even if you don’t have early teens around, I suggest just buying them anyway. You’ll enjoy them, too! And if, like us, you have a wee one scampering about, it’s not too soon to begin reading chapter books to them. It is developmentally appropriate. Start them early. Plus, they'll look nice on that special shelf of books in their room.
In fact, buy two copies of each book. It's important for parents of young readers to be engaged with what their kids or grandkids are reading. This creates for adults and their smaller humans a topic of common interest. It also helps to make a habit of chatting about what the kids are reading. Literacy is a family activity, after all!
Micki’s books are excellent for a family book chat, yes, but they are just excellent any way you cut it. This claim, which I make fully within the reasonable expectations that I have the evidence to back it up, is not just my husbandly bias. I do not make it (solely) as a proud hubby or as a young adult librarian who has been reading and curating a YA collection filled with sometimes subpar fantasy for over a decade (although those are both true) either. Micki’s first two books, Society of the Sentinelia, and Blind Fairy, respectively, have both won the AAUW Young People’s Literature Award for two consecutive years. It is rare enough for authors in our state to get just one award. To receive two consecutive awards from the same auspicious organization suggests a level of authorial competency that is quite rare.
They’re that good.
To quote Levar Burton from the wonderful children’s literacy program Reading Rainbow, “But, you don’t have to take my word for it”. If you read her books, you’ll find out yourself just how excellent they are.
Micki’s main character is Zahra, a 12 year-old scraebin (a small fairy-like creature no bigger than a loblolly pine cone—all fairies are scraebins, but not all scraebins are fairies). In the first two books, Zahra learns that she isn’t just an ordinary scraebin. Now, with the help of her Heart Animals, she takes on her role as The Convener; a powerful fairy who must bring together three special fairies called The Trilaterian, who will save the future of the scraebins. But only Zahra can reset the balance of nature within the Birkhead Wilderness and the colony of scraebins that dwell there. Her adventure will test her mettle and put her life at risk. How will she fare? Only one way to find out.
Readers of books like The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia will appreciate the fantasy elements; and like those books, Micki’s Birkhead Wilderness is teeming with magical creatures and she creates a burgeoning world of characters and mythology far beyond what the eye can see. Those who liked the Harry Potter series or the books of L. Frank Baum will enjoy the adventure and action-packed writing and themes of nature that shift the reader’s perspective to preservation and protection.
Micki does all this while maintaining a robust selection of household plants and a courtyard full of herbs and a garden full of tomatoes and while finishing her massive and slightly cumbersome final project for her masters degree. My beautiful and tired wife has two more books to write for the Zahra series and I’m told that things will only get more exciting.
Micki’s book can be purchased here. I encourage you to take a hike into the realm of Zahra of the Uwharries and buy Omega Crag. If you haven’t yet read her first two books, buy all three! You won’t be disappointed.
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